Part 1: Theory

Chapter 1: Introduction

Actual Window Manager can be used to solve many problems and is really multifunctional, but in
this article we will enlighten one very interesting and convenient feature.

Along with common techniques of switching between application windows Actual Window Manager
offers depth-based window ordering - the Transparency effect. It allows you making any window semi-transparent, with
the transparency level being easily adjusted fr om 0% (not transparent, or opaque) to 100% (fully transparent, or
invisible).

But what is the real benefit of Transparency effect? The option is useful when you work with two windows. Click the
Make Transparent button
in the title bar, and the current window becomes semi-transparent so that you can still work with it but see the contents of
the other one behind it. For example, while typing something in MS Word, you need to follow information in the
Internet browser. Push Win-T (toggle the Transparency effect) or click the Make Transparent button
in the title bar and the
MS Word window will become transparent.

Chapter 2: Handy Feature

Actual Window Manager can offer you many ways, both automatic and manual, to use the
Transparency effect:

change transparency to another value upon window's deactivation
and restore the previous value when window is activated again. This option may be especially useful for your instant
messenger (Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ or any other).

Note that having either the title button or window menu option allows you toggling the transparency with the Win-T
hotkey.

Transparency OptionsAnd there are some transparency-related options you may find useful. They are called
add-ins which means that
those options are applied automatically whenever a window becomes transparent:

Stay always-on-top - window won't be covered by
other windows even when it becomes inactive

Ghost - in this case all mouse clicks directed at the transparent window will bypass that window completely while still remaining subject to keyboard actions like hotkeys

So, it is very easy to switch the Transparency effect on, and this feature of Actual Window Manager
is very handy. But how can we improve our work by using it?

Part 2: Practice

Every day we receive a lot of letters fr om users of Actual Tools products wh ere they share their
experience of using our software. In this section we'll mention only the most interesting and instructive cases.

Chapter 1: Transparent Tablet PC Input Panel

Jeff Van West, the author of Tablet PC Quick Reference by
Microsoft Press and a regular columnist on the
Microsoft Expert Zone website, wrote us
about his experience of working with Actual Window Manager and the transparent Tablet PC
Input Panel:

"The handwriting input is done through a floating Input Panel that grows in size as you write. The growing Input Panel
slowly obscures everything on your screen until you enter the text. There is a piece of freeware someone developed for the
pre-SP2 Tablet PC operating system that makes Input Panel partially transparent, but it doesn't work on the new Input
Panel. Actual Window Manager comes to the rescue with window rules and transparency. You can make
any window transparent with AWM if you want, but you can also set rules so specific windows are transparent all the
time. By creating a Window Rule for Input Panel, you can make it transparent to whatever degree you want.

A transparent Input Panel lets you read what's underneath as you write."

Chapter 2: Comparing Stock Charts

Kevin Wisner, a stock daytrader, told us about how the usage of Transparency effect helped him in routine operations:

"I currently use 70% transparency with ghosting to overlay one stock chart over another stock chart. This allows me
access to the lower stock chart while still viewing the transparent ghosted stock chart. It is likely that I will use
the transparency and ghosting features in the future for other ideas as I come up with them."

Chapter 3: Transparent Worksheets

Recently we have received a letter fr om one of our users with the certain problem. So, here it is: working with Excel
worksheets, he wants to put an image under the spreadsheet list and make a picture of the screen.

Nothing is so simple when you use Actual Window Manager and the Transparency effect! We offer
the solution of this problem as a simple step-by-step manual:

Step 1:First of all, we should open an Excel worksheet and enter all necessary data.

Step 2:Open an image file in another window, using an internal Windows viewer (ACDsee
or any other you like).

Step 4:Make worksheet semi-transparent with the help of our Actual Window Manager. Right-clicking
the Make Transparent title button displays a context menu wh ere you can choose one of the predefined levels of
transparency.

With a help of this menu, you can easily choose the desired level of transparency.

Step 5:Make the picture of the screen (use the Print Screen key for that purpose). After that, your screenshot will
be saved into the Clipboard.

Step 7:Then use the "Edit -> Paste" menu item in this graphics editing application to paste a picture.

And that is all! Your picture file is ready. So, you may print this picture or save it on your hard drive. Click
here if you want to read the full version of this manual.

In this article we illustrated only one feature of Actual Window Manager but it will help to
save your time and efforts when you work with several applications simultaneously. Actual Window Manager
has more than 50 productivity tools which you can use to control every window on your screen.

Useful Links

See the following links that will be your guides in getting acquainted with Actual Window Manager:

Download the fully-functional 60-days trial version of Actual Window Manager right now. It is completely free!

Window Manager Home the official page wh ere you can download or order the risk-free version and read what users say about Actual Window Manager.

Microsoft Outlook is the most famous e-mail client all over the world and millions of people use it every day at home and in their offices. But despite of these facts we can improve our Microsoft Outlook!

Minimizing programs to system tray lets you save space in the taskbar while providing easy access to running applications (via the tray icon). The Minimize Alternatively option can be useful for email clients, text editors and so on.